My offer to Royal Mail.

[mjd24]

Name another job where you don't work the hours you are paid for

Define “work”.

Being in a location for exactly your set contracted hours does not necessarily mean one is “working”.

Or does it?

Paint a fence in 6 hours vs painting the same fence in 4.

[DaveF14]

Had to have a wee laugh to myself on this one. Some duties have bigger indoor prep than others. Some people have bigger outdoor deliveries than others. Some people are a hell of lot more efficient than others. People coming back and leaving whilst others are still out delivering. Why would you work your pan in, then go help some piss taker on the go slow. Name another job that rewards mediocrity and at the same time punishes efficiency? I cant think of many.

I get what you're saying - but that's not really the way I envision it. I definitely would not expect someone who is a good worker to go and help out some slow bugger - that would not be fair.

They should put in a hard rule that you cannot clock out early regularly and that you are expected to do an honest days work. If you know you've had an easy day - then they should expect us to come back to the delivery office and help out there or go and find another postie of your choosing to help out. This would mainly be a Summer only thing.

The only reason I am putting this forward is because Royal Mail know full well they are paying out for a full days work in the Summer when a lot of posties finish early. This is at least partly, but probably mainly why they want to annualise hours.

I get the feeling most posties do not want annualised hours.... so what's an alternative.... making people work their time.

I don't think annualised hours would work anyway as these days we are understaffed - Royal Mail may instead owe us hours in the Winter due to us working long hours in the Summer.



And I get it - some posties are obsessed with finishing early for whatever reason. We have the people that start early - skip breaks - then leave 30 minutes early each day. I don't know why they have to do things this way.....but these people will HATE the idea of having to work their actual hours start to finish.

I dont get the starting early thing either. Its not just management thats letting that go (suits them I suppose) but your office union rep is as well.

On to the annualised hours. I see it differently. Maybe im not understanding it correctly. Full timer on 37 hours a week. You have a lot of posties in the summer going home early in your office. So lets say you take off 1 hour a day (keep it simple) in the 2 quieter summer months giving you a 32hour week but then add that 1 hour a day in November and December making it a 42 hour week. Whats so radical about that? Whats the point of having a Greenkeeper working the same weekly hours in the winter when nothing grows compared to the summer when everything grows. It makes sense right.
The business has to modernise and save cash. Working an hour more in the winter would be a ball ache but working an hour less in the summer when the weather is better sounds no to bad to me.

[Leedspostie29]

My offer to Royal Mail...

2. No change in start and finish times and no annualised hours as you have described. JUST STOP PEOPLE GOING HOME EARLY IN SUMMER! - AND GET THOSE LAZY BUGGAS TO STAY UNTIL THEIR FINISH TIMES! - doing door2doors or cleaning cars or filling vans with fuel or delivering any parcels left. Stop allowing posties to walk off the premises early! - maybe even ask them to go and help another postie out before coming back to the depot.

5. Revisions. If you're thinking of making rounds bigger and therefore unachievable, then wake the hell up! it's not going to work! - No ridiculous revisions! - make some common sense revisions! there are rounds that exist that are 20 minutes too short and rounds that are 20 minutes too long. It doesn't take a genius to work out what to do in this

On top of this - now bugga off!! nobody believes in current management. We need new CEOs. Some people with common sense and who are TEAM leaders.

THESE TWO POINTS! Why haven’t managers been penalised for not getting a grip on staff who blatantly finish early every day and simply go home? Why do these staff think bragging about finishing early is okay? They are killing the job.

Some walks are much shorter than others and others are about 4 loops too long. Why has this been allowed to continue for years?

Not entirely true.

I see at my place 2 rounds exactly the same. One guy finishes 1 hour early, had delivered his round with no mistakes. OK? The next guy finishes his round 1 hour late, gets payed 1 hour overtime. You tell me how from a buissiness perspective the guy who is costing the company a s**t load in overtime is better than the guy who does same job but with no overtime!!

This is where royal mail management have failed miserably. Reward the slow and incompetent. Penalise let's say the younger more efficient guy?? (Obviously I'm talking about someone with none or very few mistakes, not someone who rushes) Madness.

Makes me laugh the old timers who have easy rounds booking 2 hours docket a day complain about those who Finnish early but have completed with no overtime and even done extra (lapsing for guy who has 2 hours docket who couldn't be arsed doing it) ! A lot of people with absurd views/opinions at royal mail.. Its laughable really

[Barnacle]

[/quote]

Not entirely true.

I see at my place 2 rounds exactly the same. One guy finishes 1 hour early, had delivered his round with no mistakes. OK? The next guy finishes his round 1 hour late, gets payed 1 hour overtime. You tell me how from a buissiness perspective the guy who is costing the company a s**t load in overtime is better than the guy who does same job but with no overtime!!

This is where royal mail management have failed miserably. Reward the slow and incompetent. Penalise let's say the younger more efficient guy?? (Obviously I'm talking about someone with none or very few mistakes, not someone who rushes) Madness.

Makes me laugh the old timers who have easy rounds booking 2 hours docket a day complain about those who Finnish early but have completed with no overtime and even done extra (lapsing for guy who has 2 hours docket who couldn't be arsed doing it) ! A lot of people with absurd views/opinions at royal mail.. Its laughable really
[/quote]

Well that is the walnut that RM are trying to crack with a sledgehammer. At the moment, efficiency is penalised.

There are also people who are quite happy to shaft their work partner. My work partner’s walk is a third shorter than mine. He is constantly moaning for a van on his own. He knows he’s shafting me by doing this but he doesn’t care and he’s happy to finish early as a result and doesn’t care who sees him leave.

I blame weak management over years for this being allowed to happen.

[ANDREW CROCOMBE]

One big change that may hurt RM, regulator must agree to enforcing / returning to a 100% completion every day OR massive fines for every failure. ( legal part of the uso originally) That should help us to remain fully staffed. We need that help from the government at least. We NEVER failed to this extent in the good old days.

[Barnacle]

One big change that may hurt RM, regulator must agree to enforcing / returning to a 100% completion every day OR massive fines for every failure. ( legal part of the uso originally) That should help us to remain fully staffed. We need that help from the government at least. We NEVER failed to this extent in the good old days.

Agree with this. The volume of letters being allowed to sit in frames for days, is shameful. There simply aren’t enough staff to cover days off or overtime for sickness absences.

[youngoffender]

One big change that may hurt RM, regulator must agree to enforcing / returning to a 100% completion every day OR massive fines for every failure. ( legal part of the uso originally) That should help us to remain fully staffed. We need that help from the government at least. We NEVER failed to this extent in the good old days.

Yes, Ofcom seem determined to look the other way despite the manifest evidence that Royal Mail holds the USO in contempt. RM seems to have worked out it's cheaper to understaff or overextend rounds and thumb its nose at the Postal Services Act, pricing in any fine from the regulator as a cost of doing business. Even before the strikes, our city's postal service was in abject collapse, sometimes going 2 weeks without a regular delivery, so we haven't noticed any difference this month. Ofcom either needs greater powers, which may include holding RM management personally liable for uncompleted rounds, or the gumption to enforce those it already has.

Worth also noting that POSTRS, the last resort arbitation scheme for customers escalating a complaint, says the USO is outside its remit. Ofcom won't take complaints from the public directly, in the way they do with other services they regulate, so there is literally no redress for customers going weeks without mail.

[Acca Dacca]

I think the CWU should look at taking court action against OFCOM if they fail to properly enforce the USO and put our jobs at risk

[roman]

It still amazes me how Royal Mail get away with it leaving mail in frames. I remember when letters were so important if you accidentally left one in your frame you were disciplined for it.If you cut off it was frowned upon and very rarely happened because posties were dedicated and felt responsible for failures. How times have changed eh !!

[Barnacle]

It still amazes me how Royal Mail get away with it leaving mail in frames. I remember when letters were so important if you accidentally left one in your frame you were disciplined for it.If you cut off it was frowned upon and very rarely happened because posties were dedicated and felt responsible for failures. How times have changed eh !!

The current owners despise the letters and managers have helped them to downgrade the mail delivery by prioritising tracked so that their figures look great for the boss.

It’s ludicrous. They are aiding the demise of Royal Mail’s USP.

[kazardaimenu]

They are £ucked. Most duties are too big as soon as the volumes tick up, not enough staff to clear unless chucking ludicrous overtime at it and now with a huge deluge of parcels arriving at DOs there is just no chance even if everyone stuffed their vauxhall combo full to the brim.